Idyll III, also called Κώμος ('The Serenade'), is a bucolic poem by the 3rd-century BC Greek poet Theocritus.[1] The poet appears to personate a young goatherd, who after five lines dedicatory to a friend whom he calls Tityrus, serenades his mistress Amaryllis outside her cave.[1][2] The poem is a monologue, but, like Idyll II, preserves the dialogue-form by means of a dumb character.[1]
Summary
A goatherd, leaving his goats to feed on the hill-side, in the charge of Tityrus, approaches the cavern of Amaryllis, with its veil of ferns and ivy, and attempts to win back the heart of the girl by song.[3] He mingles promises with threats, and repeats in verse the names of the famous lovers of old days, Milanion and Endymion.[3] Failing to move Amaryllis, the goatherd threatens to die where he has thrown himself down, beneath the trees.[3]
Analysis
According to J. M. Edmonds, "The appeal to Amaryllis may be regarded as consisting of three parts each ending with the offer of a gift—apples, garland, a goat—and a fourth part containing a love-song of four stanzas. The reciter would doubtless make a slight pause to mark the rejection of each gift and the failure of the song before the renewal of the cry of despair."[1]
Illustrations
'Ah, lovely Amaryllis, why no more, as of old, dost thou glance through this cavern after me, nor callest me, thy sweetheart, to thy side'
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